Advent Activities

Joel was at the perfect age this year to start doing activities for Advent. I printed off a simple numbered advent off the Internet. Most were simple activities, like reading a Christmas story or colouring a Christmas picture. Some were a little more labour intensive, like decorating cookies. Joel and Micah both enjoyed the activities and looked forward to seeing what they were going to do that day.

Joel LOVED decorating cookies. And eating them. Mostly eating them.

Micah liked the eating part. He was sad that I said he couldn't eat anymore cookies.

One day we made salt dough ornaments and painted them. Joel really got into it. They made for great presents for the grandparents. Plus, they are a cool addition to our tree.

Micah only painted two ornaments. And his head. Two hands. The newspaper. The chair. And anything else in his two foot radius.

Father Christmas visited for Sinterklaas on December 5th, the Dutch version of Christmas. You set out your shoe the night before and the next morning it is filled with treats. The kids thought it was great since they got to have sprinkle toast for breakfast (another Dutch tradition).
*Side note: It was here that I realized how ridiculous the concept of Santa is. I tried to explain the whole chimney, sleigh, present thing. It was stupid. We don't necessarily want the boys to believe in Santa, but we want them to be informed about what others believe. Joel understands a lot. He did NOT understand Santa. The only thing he can do is point out who Santa is, thanks to the lovely displays down the street. But he couldn't tell you anything about that story if he tried.
Sadly, it was also this evening that I realized how difficult the story of Jesus' birth is to grasp as well. It is also ridiculous. But somehow Joel got attached to Jesus' story. Slowly, as we explained it over and over again, it became less ridiculous and more believable. He can retell the story if he needs to and re-enacts it with his nativity figurines.

A nice addition to our tree is the hand painted ornaments the boys made this year.

A fun "Christmas" experiment. Okay. It has nothing to do with Christmas. The only thing that would make it remotely Christmas, was the green food colouring, which I couldn't find and replaced with blue. The boys had fun scooping out the foam, made from peroxide and yeast (and a few other things).

The traditional paper chain. This thing was HUGE. But only about one foot made it on our tree. I rescued it from amidst the broken pieces the boys had fun destroying as they chased one another around the house. My type A personality had to repeat constantly that this is about the boys having fun, not about having a perfect craft. For some reason this particular morning, it took all of my effort to allow them to play. I'm still glad that I rescued that one foot section. It was my little piece of compromise with the boys. I got my "craft," and they got to have fun.

Special candy cane shaped treats. Apples and craisins!

Hot cocoa after a walk in the snow.

Christmas trees and toilet tube angels, made with a friend.

Having dinner by candlelight (and Christmas lights).

Lessons from Advent:
1. Half an hour is PLENTY of time to do some sort of activity. It doesn't take long. The kids are really only interested for a few minutes, so within the half hour there is time for set up, the activity and clean up. I have found myself not wasting those thirty minutes or so we have before we need to leave for an appointment. I did an activity instead. A much better use of my time than previous to advent. I hope to keep up with some preschool type activities in the future.

2. Confession. I fell off the advent activity bandwagon around Joel's birthday (the 14th). It wasn't something that I felt like I had time for during the busyness of the season. I promised myself at the beginning of the month to show myself Grace. This was about having fun with the boys, not getting upset about something not happening. I vowed that I would only do an activity if I could have fun as well. I didn't want to let them paint only to yell at them for getting it everywhere. If I wasn't going to be nice, I wasn't going to do the activity (it was about creating good memories, not memories where their mom yelled at them). I wanted my priorities to be straight. Needless to say, around the 14th, it became too much to keep up with. But, in those remaining days until Christmas, we still did an activity a day. They weren't the crafts or activities I had planned, but we still did an activity. One day, we went shopping instead. One day, they had a hot cocoa, rather than doing an elaborate craft. A candlelit dinner, rather than a particular outing. A drive to see the lights as opposed to that days planned activity. The boys had fun and so did we.

3. We were given an advent set from a lady at Church (thanks Joan). I filled that with candy (one day at a time. Those boys are smart and would open every box in one sitting). By about half way through the month, I was so tired of the boys eating candy, I tried to shove a baby orange in one of the boxes. It was too big, and I didn't want to peel that nasty thing, so we "neglected" the boxes for a few days. The boys didn't seem to mind and I got a little piece of mind.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience. I look forward to doing it again next year and having Micah participate a little bit more (he was a bit to little this year).